Ninety thousand Britons have waved adios to a life under the Spanish sky. Why
has the sangria turned sour for so many families?

Paella on the playa; sangria under the stars; afternoon siestas after riotous fiestas. As Britain wakes up to yet another dreary spring day, moving to the Med has never seemed more appealing. It’s no wonder, then, that tens of thousands of us have done just that: since 1995, more than 760,000 emigrants have swapped bleak Blighty for a life in sunny Spain.

According to the latest statistics, however, the Spanish sueño isn’t all it once seemed – as expats return to Britain in their droves. Nearly 90,000 abandoned their Mediterranean dream last year, with town hall registers across Spain recording a 23 per cent drop in expats since January 2013. And it’s not only Brits who are heading home: the German and French populations also fell, with Chinese the only nationality increasing their presence in the country.

Local estimates put the figures even higher, with reports in English language newspaper The Olive Press suggesting that some 20,000 Brits want to leave the Costa del Sol alone. Across other areas popular with UK expats, there could be as many as 50,000 more hoping to head home. The real figures might be even higher, experts add, but for the number of people who can’t sell their properties in the current economic climate.

The Spanish dream, it seems, is dying. But what’s behind the exodus? Are Brits really fed up of sun-drenched beaches, azure skies and the enviably laid-back lifestyle?

Far from it: the enduring effects of the eurozone crisis are thought to be to blame, with a shrinking jobs market and slump in property prices driving them home. Unemployment in Spain stands at 26 per cent – a European high – and cuts that once only affected local firms have since struck at foreign companies and put entrepreneurs out of business.

“Even back in 2005, when the property market was booming, the work options for expats were very limited,” explains property expert Zoe Dare Hall, who moved back to Britain from Barcelona nine years ago. “I saw many Brits try to sustain their life out there but ultimately fail. You needed to be an entrepreneur and commute back to the UK every week, or, if you were reliant on a Spanish-based job, you needed to be involved in property in some way – an estate agent, builder or selling furniture.

“Then, when the property market crashed in 2007, the demand for those property-related services disappeared overnight.”

Admittedly, the typical British expat – a retiree with a house in Mallorca or Malaga – remains relatively unaffected by the crisis. With a pension to live off and no income at risk, for them, the pros of living in the sun far outweigh any cons. But for younger families who moved out when the going was good, sustaining a life in Spain is becoming increasingly difficult.

Jackie Miles Kirby, from Plumstead in south-east London, moved to Majocar, Andalusia, with her husband Jeremy in 2001. Having built their dream house, set up a gym business and had two young children there, she says, Spain “felt like home”. “It was the most beautiful place – we lived in the mountains; there were wild horses and goats roaming around; you could pick oranges off the trees to eat. It was everything we had dreamed of.”

Then, two years ago, Jackie and Jeremy realised that they could no longer afford their Spanish lifestyle, and would have to sell up to move somewhere cheaper. “We had left England knowing that we were going to live a frugal life that was richer in other ways,” she explains. “But we weren’t prepared for it to be that frugal. We watched it happening to our friends and neighbours. Day by day, another family would disappear. There were so many people leaving that it became a joke – everyone worried they would be the 'last man standing’. Whole communities were devastated. There were people leaving home in the middle of the night; ditching their cars at the airport and never coming back.”

Last year, with their daughters Lily, seven, and Ruby, 15, the family moved to Dubai, where Jeremy, who had worked as an estate agent in Spain, got a fire and rescue job on an oil rig. “The property business had dried up and our gym became harder to run at a profit,” says Jackie, 48. “But it would have been my worst nightmare to return to the UK. I still miss Spain dearly – our reasons for leaving were purely financial and that remains the only hurdle to living there. The plan is to save some money and, in the longer time, move back.”

Others aren’t so hopeful about Spain’s prospects as an expat haven. “For the past 10 years there was a wave of people retiring here, but that is changing,” explains Maura Hillen, the chairman of AUAN, a property scam campaign group based in Almeria. “The estate agents I know tell me that business is brisk but prices are low. People are snapping up bargains as holiday homes and they have no intention of living in Spain.”

Anna Nicholas, an author living in Mallorca, agrees. “I know of people who simply cannot afford to stay here due to the huge costs of being self-employed, lack of finance, local business costs and draconian local government legislation,” she adds.

Some have more personal reasons for quitting the Costa. Rebecca Laidlaw, 38, lived in Spain – first in the south and later in Barcelona – with her young family for 12 years before moving to Oxford in 2011. She now runs MumAbroad, an advice website for expat families in Spain, Italy, France and Germany. “The lifestyle was incredible – it was a fun place to be, every day felt a bit like a holiday and the healthcare was great,” she explains. “But when my son started school, he was unhappy and that meant it was time to leave. Towards the end, I did notice a lot more people moving back. For us, it was definitely the right choice.”

While many expats are moving back to the UK, others – like the Miles Kirby family – are relocating even further afield. As economic instability means Spain (and, to a lesser extent, France) no longer ticks all the boxes for Brits abroad, many other destinations are trumping the traditional choices in terms of climate, language and decent healthcare, education and social security.

Those leaving Spain are increasingly likely to choose Dubai over Devon, the Caribbean instead of the Cotswolds, and Switzerland over Stirling.

'Before the recession, British buyers were heading to far-flung and unusual places, such as Bulgaria, but after 2008 they all wanted safe havens,” explains Niki Riley of the estate agent Savills. “The Swiss Alps have always been stable markets, as have Venice and Tuscany. The Caribbean has also seen an uplift in interest in 2014. The weather has a massive impact on where people buy, as do direct flights. Somewhere like Barbados may seem far away, but there are flights from the UK every day so that makes it very desirable.”

But for others, still, there’s no place like home. Sarah Kenyon, who runs a holiday property business in Mallorca, is moving to Wells, Somerset, in August after 12 years in Spain. Her partner, Dani, has been unemployed for 11 months and she has three children, aged nine, eight and 23 months. “The removal company we’re using told me that 99 per cent of the work they’re doing is hauling people back to England,” she explains. “It’s not cheap to live here. In the past 12 years, I’ve paid around 37,000 euros [£30,000] just for the privilege of being self-employed. We’ve had to halve the price of our house to sell it. It is not a bed of roses.”

There is, admits Sarah, a divide among expats over the Spanish exodus. “Those who love it here say I should stop moaning,” she says. “But you’ve got to be realistic. Just because the sun is shining doesn’t mean there aren’t bills to pay and mouths to feed. For us, it makes more sense to do that back in wet, cold England – and I honestly can’t wait.”